[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I don't know. You didn't like him, anyway.
Yes, but now&
See? You're her. We're her. But shadows. She was whole.
I don't understand.
We don't. Look what happens to her. They took what was best out of her. Prufrax
went into battle eighteen more times before dying as heroes often do, dying in the midst of what she
did best. The question of what made her better before the separation for she definitely was not as
fine a fighter after has not been settled. Answers fall into an extinct classification of knowledge,
and there are few left to interpret, none accessible to this device.
So she went out and fought and died. They never even made fibs about her. This killed her?
I don't think so. She fought well enough. She died like other hawks died.
And she might have lived otherwise.
How can I know that, any more than you?
They we met again, you know. I met a Clevo once, on my ship. They didn't let me stay with him
long.
How did you react to him?
There was so little time, I don't know.
Let's ask.&
In thousands of duty stations, it was inevitable that some of Prufrax's visions would come true, that
they should meet now and then. Clevos were numerous, as were Prufraxes. Every ship carried
complements of several of each. Though Prufrax was never quite as successful as the original, she
was a fine type. She
She was never quite as successful. They took away her edge. They didn't even know it!
They must have known.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/TheVenging.html (193 of 197) [1/19/2005 12:38:20 AM]
The Venging
Then they didn't want to win!
We don't know that. Maybe there were more important considerations.
Yes, like killing history.
Aryz shuddered in his warming body, dizzy as if about to bud, then regained control. He had been pulled
from the mandate, called to his own duty.
He examined the shapes and the human captive. There was something different about them. How long
had they been immersed in the mandate? He checked quickly, frantically, before answering the call. The
reconstructed Mam had malfunctioned. None of them had been nourished. They were thin, pale, cooling.
Even the bloated mutant shape was dying; lost, like the others, in the mandate.
He turned his attention away. Everything was confusion. Was he human or Senexi now? Had he fallen so
low as to understand them? He went to the origin of the call, the ruins of the temporary brood chamber.
The corridors were caked with ammonia ice, burning his pod as he slipped over them. The brood mind
had come out of flux bind. The emergency support systems hadn't worked well; the brood mind was
damaged.
"Where have you been?" it asked.
"I assumed I would not be needed until your return from the flux bind."
"You have not been watching!"
"Was there any need? We are so advanced in time, all our actions are obsolete. The nebula is collapsed,
the issue is decided."
"We do not know that. We are being pursued."
Aryz turned to the sensor wall what was left of it and saw that they were, indeed, being pursued. He
had been lax.
"It is not your fault," the brood mind said. "You have been set a task that tainted you and ruined your
function. You will dissipate."
Aryz hesitated. He had become so different, so tainted, that he actuallyhesitated at a direct command from
the brood mind. But it was damaged. Without him, without what he had learned, what could it do? It
wasn't reasoning correctly.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/TheVenging.html (194 of 197) [1/19/2005 12:38:20 AM]
The Venging
"There are facts you must know, important facts "
Aryz felt a wave of revulsion, uncomprehending fear, and something not unlike human anger radiate from
the brood mind. Whatever he had learned and however he had changed, he could not withstand that wave.
Willingly, and yet against his will it didn't matter he felt himself liquefying. His pod slumped beneath
him, and he fell over, landing on a pool of frozen ammonia. It burned, but he did not attempt to lift
himself. Before he ended, he saw with surprising clarity what it was to be a branch ind, or a brood mind,
or a human. Such a valuable insight, and it leaked out of his permea and froze on the ammonia.
The brood mind regained what control it could of the fragment. But there were no defenses worthy of the
name. Calm, preparing for its own dissipation, it waited for the pursuit to conclude.
The Mam set off an alarm. The interface with the mandate was severed. Weak, barely able to crawl, the
humans looked at each other in horror and slid to opposite corners of the chamber.
They were confused: which of them was the captive, which the decoy shape? It didn't seem important.
They were both bone-thin, filthy with their own excrement. They turned with one motion to stare at the
bloated mutant. It sat in its corner, tiny head incongruous on the huge thorax, tiny arms and legs barely
functional even when healthy. It smiled wanly at them.
"We felt you," one of the Prufraxes said. "You were with us in there." Her voice was a soft croak.
"That was my place," it replied. "My own place."
"What function, what name?"
"I'm& I know that. I'm a researcher. In there. I knew myself in there." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
I don't know. You didn't like him, anyway.
Yes, but now&
See? You're her. We're her. But shadows. She was whole.
I don't understand.
We don't. Look what happens to her. They took what was best out of her. Prufrax
went into battle eighteen more times before dying as heroes often do, dying in the midst of what she
did best. The question of what made her better before the separation for she definitely was not as
fine a fighter after has not been settled. Answers fall into an extinct classification of knowledge,
and there are few left to interpret, none accessible to this device.
So she went out and fought and died. They never even made fibs about her. This killed her?
I don't think so. She fought well enough. She died like other hawks died.
And she might have lived otherwise.
How can I know that, any more than you?
They we met again, you know. I met a Clevo once, on my ship. They didn't let me stay with him
long.
How did you react to him?
There was so little time, I don't know.
Let's ask.&
In thousands of duty stations, it was inevitable that some of Prufrax's visions would come true, that
they should meet now and then. Clevos were numerous, as were Prufraxes. Every ship carried
complements of several of each. Though Prufrax was never quite as successful as the original, she
was a fine type. She
She was never quite as successful. They took away her edge. They didn't even know it!
They must have known.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/TheVenging.html (193 of 197) [1/19/2005 12:38:20 AM]
The Venging
Then they didn't want to win!
We don't know that. Maybe there were more important considerations.
Yes, like killing history.
Aryz shuddered in his warming body, dizzy as if about to bud, then regained control. He had been pulled
from the mandate, called to his own duty.
He examined the shapes and the human captive. There was something different about them. How long
had they been immersed in the mandate? He checked quickly, frantically, before answering the call. The
reconstructed Mam had malfunctioned. None of them had been nourished. They were thin, pale, cooling.
Even the bloated mutant shape was dying; lost, like the others, in the mandate.
He turned his attention away. Everything was confusion. Was he human or Senexi now? Had he fallen so
low as to understand them? He went to the origin of the call, the ruins of the temporary brood chamber.
The corridors were caked with ammonia ice, burning his pod as he slipped over them. The brood mind
had come out of flux bind. The emergency support systems hadn't worked well; the brood mind was
damaged.
"Where have you been?" it asked.
"I assumed I would not be needed until your return from the flux bind."
"You have not been watching!"
"Was there any need? We are so advanced in time, all our actions are obsolete. The nebula is collapsed,
the issue is decided."
"We do not know that. We are being pursued."
Aryz turned to the sensor wall what was left of it and saw that they were, indeed, being pursued. He
had been lax.
"It is not your fault," the brood mind said. "You have been set a task that tainted you and ruined your
function. You will dissipate."
Aryz hesitated. He had become so different, so tainted, that he actuallyhesitated at a direct command from
the brood mind. But it was damaged. Without him, without what he had learned, what could it do? It
wasn't reasoning correctly.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/TheVenging.html (194 of 197) [1/19/2005 12:38:20 AM]
The Venging
"There are facts you must know, important facts "
Aryz felt a wave of revulsion, uncomprehending fear, and something not unlike human anger radiate from
the brood mind. Whatever he had learned and however he had changed, he could not withstand that wave.
Willingly, and yet against his will it didn't matter he felt himself liquefying. His pod slumped beneath
him, and he fell over, landing on a pool of frozen ammonia. It burned, but he did not attempt to lift
himself. Before he ended, he saw with surprising clarity what it was to be a branch ind, or a brood mind,
or a human. Such a valuable insight, and it leaked out of his permea and froze on the ammonia.
The brood mind regained what control it could of the fragment. But there were no defenses worthy of the
name. Calm, preparing for its own dissipation, it waited for the pursuit to conclude.
The Mam set off an alarm. The interface with the mandate was severed. Weak, barely able to crawl, the
humans looked at each other in horror and slid to opposite corners of the chamber.
They were confused: which of them was the captive, which the decoy shape? It didn't seem important.
They were both bone-thin, filthy with their own excrement. They turned with one motion to stare at the
bloated mutant. It sat in its corner, tiny head incongruous on the huge thorax, tiny arms and legs barely
functional even when healthy. It smiled wanly at them.
"We felt you," one of the Prufraxes said. "You were with us in there." Her voice was a soft croak.
"That was my place," it replied. "My own place."
"What function, what name?"
"I'm& I know that. I'm a researcher. In there. I knew myself in there." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]